How the 40-year-old mystery of a UFO in New Zealand lives on

It was New Year’s Day, 1979, when the world woke to the news that strange lights had been spotted by six people on a plane off the New Zealand’s South Island.

Was it a UFO? No, said the sceptics. It was Venus, it was squid boats, it was radar returns from a field of cabbages.

But 40 years later, the two pilots and four passengers are adamant it was none of the above and are frustrated at being unable to find answers.

New Zealand’s The Herald on Sunday tracked down each member of the group around the world. One is a mango farmer in Hawaii, while another is an 80-year-old newlywed after her royal wedding-themed ceremony at her retirement village the night before Meghan and Harry’s big day.

The case bought instant fame — but no fortune — for some, before bringing shame and anger when they were accused of hoaxing the sighting. It broke up a marriage.

Guido Valentich holds a photograph of his son Frederick, a pilot who went missing while on a flight to King Island in a Cessna in October 1978. Picture: Popperfoto/Getty Source:Getty Images

At the end of 1978, Australasia was in the grip of UFO fever. In October, 20-year-old Frederick Valentich disappeared while piloting a small Cessna 182 aircraft over Bass Strait while heading to King Island in Tasmania. Described as a “flying saucer enthusiast”, Valentich informed Melbourne air traffic control he was being accompanied by an unknown aircraft.Two months later across the Tasman, on December 21, Safe Air pilots Vern Powell and Ian Pirie spotted strange lights while flying from Blenheim to Christchurch.

A producer for Melbourne’s Channel 0 (now Channel 10), Leonard Lee heard the news and tracked down reporter Quentin Fogarty, who worked for the channel but was on holiday with his wife and children in Christchurch, staying at TV Onejournalist Dennis Grant’s home.

Freelance Wellington cameraman David Crockett was also hired, along with his wife Ngaire, who operated the audiotape recorder.

The group were invited to jump aboard Safe Air’s Blenheim-based Argosy plane, named Merchant Enterprise, late on December 30, which pilots Bill Startup and Bob Guard were taking on a newspaper run between Wellington and Christchurch.

Shortly after takeoff, the pilots noticed strange lights appearing and disappearing over the Kaikōura coastline about 30 kilometres west.

“While we were filming a stand-up to camera, Captain Bill Startup shouted to us that we should go to the flight deck immediately as something was happening again,” says David Crockett.

“With the conversation coming through my headphones from the pilots and radar from Wellington, it all started to get very scary,” says Ngaire Crockett.

“I was able to stand up a couple of times and was able to see these bright light coming and going. [Quentin] was a real mess and grabbed hold of both my hands and started shaking. I didn’t have time to worry about myself, I had to help him.”

The plane landed at Christchurch to unload newspapers and the pilots asked the news team if they wanted to go back through the area they had traversed. Ngaire was too frightened so stayed in Christchurch. The others reboarded the plane with Dennis Grant in Ngaire’s place.

“David had used up all the film in his 16mm camera,” Grant says.

“Quentin called me sometime after midnight from Christchurch Airport to see if I could provide a fresh roll of film. I could — but there was a catch — I wanted to get on the plane for the flight to Blenheim.”

The “UFO”, captured by cameraman David Crockett in New Zealand.Source:News Corp Australia

The plane took off at 2.16am. About three minutes after takeoff, the group saw a bright, round light to the right. The aeroplane radar showed a target in the same direction about 18 nautical miles.

Fogarty would later be heard saying on camera: “Let’s hope they’re friendly.”

Crockett filmed the light for several minutes as it appeared to travel along with the plane.

When they turned toward it, the light seemed to react by moving away from the aeroplane.

“The experience itself was extraordinary,” Fogarty says.

“Just being on the cramped, noisy flight deck of the Argosy barrelling down the coast in the dead of the night was exciting. Factor in a row of pulsating, hypnotic lights hovering outside the window, and it goes to another level.”

After landing at Woodbourne Airport at about 3am, the group stayed at the two pilots homes in Blenheim.

Startup’s daughter Tracy Moore remembers her father coming home in the middle of the night.

A copy of the New Zealand Herald from January 3, 1979.Source:NZ Herald

This was the copy of the Herald on January 4, 1979. Source:NZ Herald

“Everyone was at our house talking about it in the middle of the night. They were talking about lights, unexplained radar.

“At one point, I remember dad saying it might be a good idea to report it to the police. It was during the Cold War, there was a bit of paranoia around. Mum said: ‘You can’t sit on this information’.

“It was scary at the time. It was a big unknown thing that had happened and we had all the adults around discussing it. There were certainly no jokes being made.”

Fogarty interviewed the pilots before flying to Melbourne to give the recordings to Channel 0. The footage featured on prime time news that night and a longer documentary piece screened later.

The news went around the world and was featured by major news media, including by the Herald and by CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite.

The sceptical reaction was immediate. Explanations included that it was Venus, drug runners, light reflected from cabbages or squid boats.

The Robert Muldoon Government ordered an inquiry by the Air Force, which concluded that the sightings could be explained by natural but unusual phenomena.

Leonard Lee travelled to the US to give the film to Bruce Maccabee, an optical physicist who specialised in laser technology and worked for the US Navy in Maryland, Virginia. He was also flown to New Zealand and Melbourne to interview witnesses.

He concluded the event involved unknown objects or phenomena fitting the definition of UFOs.

“One would think that the conclusion that several of the sightings involved unidentified objects flying with impunity in the New Zealand air space would have been sufficient to start an even deeper study of the UFOs,” Maccabee says.

Maccabee pictured recently. Source:NZ Herald

“But it wasn’t. The sightings were relegated to the dustbin of history, forgotten by all except the witnesses and a few ufologists who discussed the various sighting events for years afterward.”

He says that 39 years after the Kaikōura footage emerged, in December 2017, major media carried reports of UFO sightings by US Navy personnel during training exercises.

He says they involved multiple witnesses and multiple sources of information such as battleship radar at sea level, radar in the Navy jet aeroplanes, visible and infra-red video cameras in the aeroplanes.

But the incident appears to have been forgotten.

“History appears to be repeating itself.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

The Herald on Sunday caught up with the pilots and passengers.

Journalist Quentin Fogarty, 72

After his world scoop, Dunedin-born Quentin Fogarty suffered from “nervous exhaustion” and ended up in hospital for a couple of weeks.

Quentin Fogarty. Picture: Paul Davidson Source:NZ Herald

“The level of initial scepticism both surprised and, at times, overwhelmed me. I certainly did not expect to be accused of hoaxing the whole thing. That cut deep, it still does.

“The local daily tabloid in Melbourne branded me as the ‘UFO Reporter’, and that stuck for a short time, but it did not take long for me to be back in my role as a TV journalist reporting on more mundane matters.”

Fogarty, a father of four who still lives in Melbourne, says he endeavoured to report the story as accurately and as impartially as he could.

“We had film, our own eyewitness accounts and confirmation from the flight crew and air traffic controllers that we had stumbled into something astonishing.

Fogarty, who started his career at Dunedin’s Evening Star wrote a book about the experience in 1982, Let’s Hope They’re Friendly, and remains convinced that enhanced computer analysis of the film might get closer to finding answers.

“Forty years down the track, this is still unfinished business.”

Pilot Bill Startup, 85

Startup now lives in a rest home in Blenheim. He had a stroke a three years after the incident and had to retire from flying.

He wrote a book the following year, The Kaikōura UFOs, his daughter says, to clear up the misinformation doing the rounds. The same year, Startup then took his wife Shirley and children to visit Bruce Maccabee in the US.

Bill Startup in 1978. Source:NZ Herald

Shirley, who died in 2012, was interviewed in 2008 and said a psychiatrist had thought the men had lost their faith in God and were seeing angels.

Startup, who was not well enough to be interviewed by the Herald on Sunday, told a documentary in 2009: “What it was all those years ago … I wish I knew. People can think what they want but they were not in the aircraft.”

Startup did not dwell on the experience, Moore says.

“Over the years there has been periodic interest, so he was being visited every one to two years from reporters all over. But he didn’t bring it up.”

She didn’t get the impression he truly believed it was UFO.

“He’d seen something that he did not know what it was, and his colleagues couldn’t come up with an explanation. He had no thoughts that he ever communicated to us.”

Co-pilot Bob Guard, 73

Guard has never said too much about the strange lights.

“One of the issues for me is we were just doing our job. We suddenly had to justify ourselves. We didn’t know what the hell it was.

“We didn’t expect to see anything. It was a bit tense as it got closer to the aircraft.”

“I got over it. Have I ever seen anything like that again? No I haven’t. Do I believe in UFOs? No I don’t. Pilots see a lot of unidentified flying things.

“Would I tell anyone if I saw anything like that again? No I wouldn’t. It’s not worth the hassle.”

Research followed the sightings but he says “some were a sham — they used newspaper articles for their research”.

Guard stopped working for Safe Air in 1990 and went on to work at Air Nelson. He was the flight operations manager when he retired, aged 65, in 2010.

His children and grandchildren were aware of the story but it is not “something that has taken over their lives”.

Sound recorder Ngaire Crockett, 80

The Crocketts, who had five children, separated soon after the incident.

Ngaire is now Ngaire Gilmore after her new marriage to husband Ray Gilmore.

Ngaire Crocket in the 1970s. Source:NZ Herald

Ngaire Gilmore at her home in Palmerston North. Picture: Alexander Robertson Source:NZ Herald

The pair, who met during a blind date eight years ago, married in a surprise ceremony at the Julia Wallace Retirement Village in Palmerston North the day before Meghan and Harry’s nuptials this year.

Residents dressed up in royal wedding theme for happy hour but didn’t know they were attending a real wedding.

“Has this film changed my life?” asks Gilmore.

“I guess it did. We had phone call after phone call and people knocking on our door. David and the reporter became so obsessed that the doco was all they talked about. I switched off as we had five children and it was effecting all our lives.”

Cameraman David Crockett, 85

David Crockett dealt with health a handful of effects after filming the strange objects.

“To this very day, the incident has never left my mind. I am also reminded of the event by people who come up to me and say, ‘I saw you the other night on the Discovery or Science Channel’.

David Crockett in 1978. Source:NZ Herald

David Crockett. Picture: SuppliedSource:NZ Herald“The effect this historic sighting has had on all of us has certainly included a fair amount of stress. As for me, I was sleepless for several nights, and after having performed several overseas lectures on this sighting, became quite depressed.

Crockett, who now lives in Hawaii where he worked as a mango farmer, made a documentary about the incident, and gave lectures, which took him around the world. He is hoping to make a new documentary to mark the 40-year anniversary.

“It substantially changed my life. At that time in the history of the UFO phenomena, sceptics thought we were crazy, and criticised us in many ways. In 1978, most persons would not seriously consider that these were real object and may even originate from other planets.”

TV journalist Dennis Grant, 66

Over the years Grant has amassed a massive collection of a newspaper and magazine stories. He’s scoured official records in Australia and New Zealand and lodged official information applications for long-forgotten files.

Dennis Grant. Source:NZ Herald

“The results are overwhelmingly unhelpful in explaining the lights and what they were doing in the lonely summer skies of New Zealand. Forty years on I’m still very curious.

“My grandkids love to hear the story of my brush with UFOs, I just wish I could provide an ending.”

Grant was working at TV One (now TVNZ 1) in Christchurch in 1978 and now lives in Australia.

“I was a young journalist back then, fired with the zeal of telling stories untold, and I helped tell this story. But the rest of the world, the scientists, the officials, the military and — saddest of all for me — the media, were all consumed with indifference. Incurious.”

So does he believe in UFOs?

“I am entirely sceptical of the notion of little green men, Martian anal probes and all the rest of it. I note that the number of UFO sightings has greatly diminished since video and digital cameras and phone cameras have became readily available. However, what we saw that night over Kaikōura was unidentified and still is.”

The Argosy

The decommissioned Argosy now sits on land near the Marlborough Airport owned by Blenheim filmmaker Paul Davidson.

He purchased the aircraft in 1991 after hearing it was to be scrapped, telling the Safe Air general manager he would pay what he would have got from the scrap dealer.

The aircraft had special meaning to him — in 2009, Davidson made a documentary, featuring interviews with the pilots and crew from 1978.

Davidson, whose home is on land adjacent to the aircraft, has restored and refurbished the aircraft and runs flight simulation experiences, complete with in-flight movies telling the story of Safe Air — and meals.

Passengers can dine at the Argosy Cafe, next to the plane, which acts as a terminal where they can collect their boarding passes and go to their gate for the experience. There is also memorabilia on display.

“We put it back together and tidied it up. It’s unique to Marlborough.”

From Thursday, to coincide with the first strange sighting, Davidson will be running a UFO-themed experience.

His documentary will be screened, lights will be dimmed on-board and a “spooky atmosphere” created.

“People can sit in actual seat Captain Startup sat in.

“It’s the only place in the world where you can do that.”

So, does Davidson believe in UFOs?

“I believe in the possibility of them.

“I got to know both pilots with my documentary. They got sick of people saying ‘It was probably the lights of cars, or lights of squid boats’. These were professional pilots. ‘We know what Venus looks like, this was not Venus’.

“Everyone on board has said the event had a traumatic effect on their lives.”

The Shadowhunters of the Kentucky Caves

Recently, we have ventured, on several occasions, to the idea of ​​the many mysterious cave systems around the world that house entities or ways of life that most of us would not want to contemplate, let alone meet face to face. One of those locations that may be more mysterious than most is “Hollow Cave,” which is part of Kentucky’s equally mysterious cave systems. And more specifically the “shadow thieves” that some claim reside deep within them.

The strange activity in this place goes back to the beginning of the XVIII century, before the official formation of the United States of America. And what’s more, it seems that this strange activity continues today to a large extent. Furthermore, Kentucky’s cave systems, including the Mammoth Cave National Park, are the largest cave systems in the world. And it seems that much of the underground terrain has not yet been discovered. In fact, according to some, parts of these ancient cave systems have been purposely closed and remain undeclared. And according to one researcher, whose accounts we will examine in a moment, the secret that surrounds the parts of these cave systems is not for the protection of the cave. But purely for the protection of those who dare to enter.

While there is no doubt that many of the legends surrounding the Kentucky caves have their roots in the witchcraft accounts of the early 1700s, the fact that they last so long three centuries later may mean that we should lend more attention to such events. In fact, perhaps such tales as shadow hunters may become more than mere folklore. And, in addition, maybe we should look at some of the other cave systems around the world under a new perspective and from a different perspective, so that they do not become the same.

Hollow Cave – Whose location must remain secret!

The account of Shadowhunters of the hollow cave. Enter the public arena through the researcher and writer, Allen Kopp. And in addition, the incident is one that involves Kopp himself. Before disclosing the details of your account, you cryptically state that the location of the cave in question must remain “a strict secret for reasons I can not tell you about.” Then he goes on to say that this is for the protection of the reader.

What we do know is that the cave is located somewhere in an abandoned quarry, behind a retirement home in Louisville, Kentucky. According to Kopp, the cave would extend for at least a mile, reaching the Cave Hill cemetery. In one stage, there was apparently an entrance to Hollow Cave at the location of the cemetery. Through this entrance, “spring waters” flowed to the nearby lake. A boat is required to reach this entrance (which is now hidden). According to the legends of the area, this lake had about 25 acres and a depth of about twenty feet.

In addition, due to the “quarry blasting”, the terrain towards and in the cave is, at best, “treacherous”. In addition, rocks and quicksand litter the corridors. However, that is not all that resides in cave systems. It is not even the worst. The shadows, which appear without the presence of light, no less, are “what dwells” in the hollow cave. And beyond, according to Kopp, “they are everywhere, but without light, nobody can see them.”

Perhaps even more alarming, these shadows are far from latent. And they are waiting for the opportunity to be complete once more. At the expense of the unfortunate adventurer who dares to enter.

Without a shadow, a person can not exist!

Apparently, the origins of these mysterious shadows of Hollow Cave date back to the early eighteenth century. During this time, when the United States of America was still in the future and the “new world” was still in the process of “settlement” by pilgrims from Europe, witchcraft was particularly widespread. And although the Inquisition had no authority in the new world, many women would find their end among the accusations of witchcraft. While the vast majority of these women were undoubtedly innocent and none deserved the treatment they received in the last moments of their lives, there are some curious and suspicious cases. It would seem that it was not only free enlightened thinkers who wished to practice the finer details of their art and beliefs.

What’s more, it’s not just individual witches who make poultices and potions in the middle of nowhere and far from the majority of the population. Entire witches’ wives existed along the many forests and back roads of the rapidly growing nation that would be the United States.

In the area that would become Louisville, Kentucky at the beginning of the 18th century, in the place where the only entrance to the cave was in the cemetery, a group of witches would meet at night to perform “rituals”. According to area reports, around this time, at least two girls would disappear near the same place. None of them was seen again. In addition, according to reports and legends of the area, a “Countess” of the coven, called “Mary Smith”, which is unlikely to be her real name, would put a curse on many young victims. Including the two young people. She would steal their shadows, a curse from the Black Book of Curses of the “old country.” Without a shadow, a person can not exist.

“They walk among us every day and we do not pay attention to them!”

Kopp himself would investigate these strange legends. In fact, it was this interest and this research that led him to Hollow Cave in the first place. And it is in these black and deep cave systems that the shadows of the unfortunate victims of Mary Smith’s coven resides. At least according to Kopp. And here lies the complexity of such legends.

As Kopp explains, “In the darkness you can not see the hidden shadows. And turning on a light of any kind will not help. As soon as the light emits in a shadow, it ceases to be a shadow. ” And besides, you can not see them anymore. Just like you can not see in the dark. What may happen to our “mortal remains” remains a mystery. As Kopp asks, “did we ever really exist?”

Besides that, Kopp insists that we have all seen these shadow hunters. Responsible for once turning human beings of “flesh and bone” into memories without form and without shadows. According to Kopp, “they walk among us every day and we do not pay attention to them”. In addition, on many occasions, we might even find ourselves talking with such creatures, although again we would not be aware of anything out of the ordinary or out of the ordinary. However, despite this, we must be careful with whom we become friends with. According to the legends, if an unfortunate person befriends such an entity, he is likely to lose his shadow. And ultimately his soul.

These entities that steal the shadows are the true witches of the legends. Some that can alter their appearance depending on their objective. Instead of the repulsive and pointed-nosed “witches” of fairy tales, these creatures, for example, by attracting a young man, project themselves as a beautiful young woman. So beautiful that most men could not resist its charm. Or his seductive and fatal attack.

A perpetual state of nothingness, watching and waiting!

Once these mortal entities have their soul, they also have the shadow of a person. These shadows are “hidden” and reside in the darkness of the hollow cave.

Without a doubt it is an interesting concept. Without light, there can be no shadows. As Kopp himself asked, “do we really ever exist”? Are we not more than shadows and projections? Could this explain the obsession in multiple ancient texts of “light” and how important it is? Could it be esoteric information and wisdom about the true nature, state and existence of humanity?

Perhaps what is most chilling, certainly for those who wish to explore such cave systems is that these “Shad-O-Cavo” caves are present throughout the United States, and even in the world. And what is more, they are full of the shadows of those who have disappeared. These shadows, in their perpetual state of non-existence, await, seeking an opportunity to exist once more. As much as we can not see these shadows, they can not see us either. However, they can “feel” a living presence.

According to Kopp’s research, the average temperature of a typical cave is 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The average temperature of the human body, on the other hand, is around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. It is this change in temperature, almost like a supernatural heat sensor, that alerts these shadow entities to a human presence. And the opportunity for them to take control of a human body and live once more.

As extravagant and truly strange as this notion is to many, perhaps it would be linked to the absolute plethora of “missing persons” in this part of the world. In fact, there is a wave of theories about where the missing people are. And who or what is behind his disappearance. Maybe some are victims of shadow hunters?

Maybe Nazca Lines Are Alien Artifacts From Ancient Times

The lines of Nazca are very old. Their age is about 2600 years. Even today, no exact explanation for these huge desert drawings has been found. In the scientific world, there are many theories about the purpose of these lines in Nazca. But the most plausible theory is that these lines were made by an alien civilization.

Another interesting theory about the lines at Nazca would be that aliens visited this region for certain purposes and at some point they left as quickly as they came. And the people in that region tried to make gigantic desert designs in the hope that they could be seen from space by alien ships.

Probably the people in that region wanted long contact with these advanced aliens.

The natives of Nazca also built what strikes a landing strike for planes.

Below you can see a very interesting point of view for this Nazca lines:

My opinion is that Nazca lines are made by humans trying to send a message to aliens.

The Kyshtym Being: Dwarf, Alien or What Was That Creature?

Alyoshenka (diminutive of the Russian male first name Alexey) or the Kyshtym Dwarf – anthropomorphic artifact, representing unidentified mummified remains of biological origin, found in 1996 near the southern outskirts of Kyshtym in the village of Kaolinovy, Chelyabinsk region of Russia.

A strange “creature” was discovered in May 1996 in the village of Kaolinovoe near Kyshtym by a pensioner Tamara Vasilyevna Prosvirina, suffering from mental illness. A lonely pensioner received a “telepathic order”: get up and immediately go to the cemetery.

However, the pensioner was often at the cemetery because of a mental illness, gathered flowers there and even brought photos of the dead taken from the monuments to the house.

Tamara Vasilievna was, in general, calm, did not offend anyone, and only occasionally in times of crisis turned out to be in a psychiatric hospital. So, the fact that she was not scared by the dark night of “strolling” in the cemetery is not strange.

Another thing is strange: going to the “call” woman found the one who called her… A tiny creature with huge eyes only very remotely resembled a human baby, but it was squeaking plaintively, and the compassionate old woman decided to take it with her – wrapped it in some kind of rag, brought it home, fed and started calling her “new son” Alyoshenka.

The mysterious baby lived with Tamara for only three weeks. Neighbours began to notice something strange in her behaviour: where have you seen it so that an old woman could have a baby? The villagers turned to the doctors, and they had put the old woman in a psychiatric hospital. She cried and repeated that a child remained in her house unattended…

However, as it turned out, Tamara had no hallucinations. A mysterious creature was seen by her daughter-in-law and a relative Galina Alferova.

But the busy women did not attach much importance to the “unknown little animal”, because there was no harm from it: it was drinking some water from a spoon, sucking on caramel, curd, milk.

Left in an empty house without the minimal care that grandmother rendered him, the strange “baby” died.

“Alyoshenka” was discovered by the police during a search. A little corpse was in a dried, wrinkled condition, it had a lot of folds of the skin.

After that, many experts examined this corpse – like pathologists, and gynaecologists, and they all claim that it is not a human corpse and not a baby corpse. He looked completely different.

The structure of the skeleton and the skull was not at all human. Even if a certain creature can mutate very strongly, then to such a degree it is impossible.

The remains were of interest to ufologists, and since it was not a human corpse, “Alyoshenka” was handed to them. For a long time, the mummy passed from hand to hand, and then disappeared… Ufologists claim that it was abducted by aliens, but one “New Russian” from Yekaterinburg is telling that it is in his personal museum.

However, it is impossible to say for sure where the unknown creature is now.